New Delhi, June 30 -- As the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) kicks off in Seville, Spain, we look at how a massive debt burden on developing countries is holding them back. As an unfit global financial architecture makes accessing finance more difficult for countries in the developing world, governments are left with the option of either servicing the debt or serving the people.

$105,000. That's the cost of citizenship of Nauru, an island nation spanning just 21 square kilometres in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The low-lying island is issuing "golden passports" with the aim of raising money to fund climate action.

Nauru is the world's third smallest country and its contribution to global greenhouse g...